College Forum Spurs a Broader GOP Debate

Orrin G. Hatch called for compassion toward gays and lesbians. John McCain mused about replacing the Panama Canal with a new passageway. George W. Bush defended the execution of criminals as young as age 17.

On an unseasonably temperate New Hampshire afternoon, a college forum attended by four of the six GOP presidential hopefuls Sunday yielded one of the most wide-ranging and free-flowing discussions of the presidential campaign. Seated on a wooden stool in the center of a sparsely decorated stage, appearing one after the other, the candidates stated their views on everything from sex education to genetic research to the Northern Ireland peace process.

With high school and college students pitching the questions, the forum in an auditorium at St. Anselm College often assumed the fluid feel and informal air of a campus bull session. There was even an existential interlude when Texas Gov. Bush and a student ruminated on the ethics of human cloning. (The GOP front-runner seemed to second her notion that belief in a higher power would discourage human attempts to create a master race.)

There was little said during the roughly two hours of varied discussion that seemed likely to move many votes. After running a gantlet of three debates in four days--with another scheduled for tonight--the candidates chose to mute their criticisms of one another, putting on their Sunday-best behavior.

Mostly, they restated familiar positions--and expressed broad agreement--on such standby issues as gun control, abortion and tax cuts of some sort.

The session, a forum designed to inspire youthful participation in politics, was most noteworthy for confronting the candidates with the sorts of topics they rarely, if ever, encounter in the more structured and self-consciously serious forums they face.

Sex education, for example. Publisher Steve Forbes was asked by a student about the wisdom of “abstinence-only” courses for young people who plan to engage in intimate relations. Shouldn’t they learn about different means of birth control? Forbes turned the question into a discussion of school choice. “I would trust parents,” he said, “and let them choose schools” with a sex-education curriculum they preferred.

Another student asked Bush about the moral and legal implications of genetic research. “Our country’s going to have to wrestle with these questions,” the governor agreed, conceding that, “I don’t have all the answers.”

At another point, Bush was forced to defend Texas’ policy of executing murderers as young as 17. “I believe at 17 and older we must send a signal that you won’t kill anybody,” Bush told an obviously skeptical questioner. “I think someone age 17 should know better.”

He also offered rare praise for President Clinton when asked about the Northern Ireland peace agreement, saying the president “deserves credit for bringing the parties together.” He said he might even consider asking former Democratic Sen. George Mitchell, the president’s envoy, to continue that role in a Bush administration.

Sen. McCain of Arizona, who is running neck-and-neck with Bush in New Hampshire, used the session to press his call for campaign finance reform.

“You are no longer represented in Washington, only the special interests,” he told the audience of several hundred students, vowing as president to “break the iron triangle of big money, lobbyists and legislation.”

In response to another question, McCain came up with one of the day’s more novel--if short-lived--proposals. He called the recent return of the Panama Canal a mistake and said the U.S. might consider building an alternative passage elsewhere.

Minutes later, however, the candidate ditched the prospective ditch, saying the cost would be prohibitive. “It would be nearly impossible,” he said.

Sen. Hatch of Utah broke from the largely conservative tone by sounding a compassionate note toward gays and lesbians. In response to a question about same-sex unions, Hatch said it was vital to “preserve the sanctity of marriage” as a compact between a man and a woman. At the same time, however, he said he would support some “civil compromise” such as granting hospital visitation and inheritance rights to gay couples.

“I would want to be fair to gays without undermining the basic institution of marriage,” Hatch said.

Hours later, the candidates reconvened for a state GOP dinner inside a cavernous sports arena at the University of New Hampshire. They were joined by conservative activist Gary Bauer and former ambassador Alan Keyes, completing the six-man GOP field.

McCain struck the sharpest note Sunday, denouncing Democrat Al Gore for recently suggesting prospective appointees to the Joint Chiefs of Staff would have to endorse allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the military. The vice president quickly backed away from the statement, saying he supports allowing gays in the armed forces but that he would not make the issue a litmus test for appointment to the nation’s highest military posts.

McCain accused Gore’s rival, Bill Bradley, of making similar comments, but in a debate last week, Bradley, who supports having gays in the military, merely said he would expect the joint chiefs to follow his orders.

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Times political writer Ronald Brownstein contributed to this story.